Teddy's Swamp

January 13, 2009

By Stephanie G., Sussex, WI

Joe Goetz is a 47 year-old male, who has been deer hunting 36 years. About eight years ago he started hunting up north in Taylor Country. The first year was the experimental year. They did not know they lay of the land and had to scout it out to find prime places to hunt on the 600 some acres they had. The first deer season up there he and his group (Kevin, Billy, Tom, Uncle Bill, Chris, and Junior) were out scouting the land looking for prime places to make drives. They came across this one swamp on the main property (they call the main piece the 500). It would be complicated to set up this drive. They decided that some would line up on the east end of the drive and push it west where the posters where waiting. First, the drivers would push through marsh grass they would be lined up quite close together. Then a couple of drivers on the south end of the drive would head straight south because the drive widen and dog-legged left. There those drivers would cover the woods while the others trudged through the thick marsh. They would fan out to cover the whole drive. After two days of contemplating how to set up this drive, they lined up. The guys were hooting and hollering to keep in a straight line. “I was right in the middle of it. You couldn’t see more than a hand length in front of you.” He remarked. He was up to his waist in water jumping from bog to bog; he kept hearing a crunching noise from behind. For several hundred feet jumping through the bogs the noise followed him. “All of a sudden I came to a clearing right in the middle of the swamp. There was an easy 400 pound black bear there standing up on its hind legs. I stood there frozen for about a half a second. Then I screamed KEVIN! Like a little girl.” The bear took off heading right toward the posters. Billy, who was on the ground posting, hears a crunch, crunch and he pulls up his gun. He looks through the scope and see’s black. He takes off running. The bear passes two more of the guys posting and takes off back into the swamp. “Later Billy asked if he could shoot it. That’s just because he’s from Illinois.” This is how the group came to name this drive Teddy’s Swamp. Most of the time they kick a bear out of there about three years ago they had a record high of four bears to come out.

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